Dust

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dust dusti bowling

A girl who struggles to breathe befriends a boy who seems shrouded in dust, in this unmissable tour de force from bestselling and award-winning author Dusti Bowling.

After Avalyn nearly died from an asthma attack, her parents moved her to the clear, dry air of Clear Canyon City, Arizona. And for the last ten years, she’s been able to breathe. That is, until Adam showed up.

Quiet and unkempt, Adam is an instant target for the bullies who have plagued Avalyn and her friends. As Avalyn gets to know him, she begins to suspect that the sudden, strange increase in dust storms around town are somehow connected to his emotions. She thinks his problems may be even worse at home, especially when massive black walls of dust start rolling in after the school day. Will she find a way to stand up for her new friend? Her life may just depend on it.

Dusti Bowling delivers a page-turning, powerful, and poignant novel of friendship, courage, and healing, perfect for readers of Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and Erin Entrada Kelly.---from the publisher

352 pages                                                978-0316414234                                        Ages 8-12

Keywords:  bullying, friendship, courage, understanding others, dealing with feelings, dealing with emotions, healing, 8 year old, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, physical abuse, sexual abuse, boys issues'

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Got a bullying problem at your school?  You sure about that?  Turns out it's not enough to put up signs.

Our boys, our boys, our boys.

Avalyn has asthma and has almost died twice.  Her world can seem to be closing in on her, cutting off all the air she needs to breathe.  Avalyn goes to a middle school where four kids play king and queen bee.  Emma, Valerie, Caleb and Bryden love to hurt, harass, abuse, and assault other kids in their school.  They love to do it.  It makes them feel so special, so powerful, so important.  It fills all the empty, hurting spaces inside of them and no one, not one single person stands up to them to tell them to stop.

Avalyn and her besties, Nan and Dillon, eat lunch together every day and hang out together after school.  They are regular targets of the four bullies, renamed Meanie Butt Bullies by Avalyn.  The MBB's find a new way to insult and assault Avalyn and her friends every week until Adam moves in and starts coming to their school.  He's an easier target.  He's the kids who sits in class with his head down on his desk. He's the kid who doesn't wash his hair.

But what Avalyn has noticed is there might be something really wrong and there might be something really powerful about him.  Something no one else suspects.  She understands.  She can see the truth because Avalyn has a superpower too.

Bullying hurts.  Bullying hurts everyone not just the person being bullied.

This is a painful story about what it's like to live in a world where you can't breathe.  Deeply felt and intending to lift up every one of us who has been the target of bullying or abuse at home, this story holds hope and empowerment.

Here's the permission you've been waiting for to find your voice and use it.

Recommended by:  Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com

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